1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of digital video and audio editing, and, more particularly, to a system and method of selecting among simultaneously accessible on-screen digital source video streams in real-time to form a digital user-arranged video stream.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, music videos are produced by professional video production companies in association with musical artists. A music video usually contains a series of video images accompanying a musical soundtrack such as a song. The video images may portray the artist or artists performing the song, as well as other scenes, representations, animated sequences, and special effects. It is typical to repeatedly switch among, or inter-cut, these various images throughout the music video, as well as to inter-cut among several camera angles for a particular scene. Additionally, special effects consisting of various video and audio transformations are often performed on selected portions of the images and soundtrack.
When viewing a completed music video, either from a broadcast or cable source, or from another pre-recorded video source, the viewer/consumer is not given the opportunity to interact with the product at all. In particular, he or she is not able to control, adjust, or modify the camera angles, choice of scenes, inter-cut points, or transformations selected by the producer of the music video. The viewer is merely a passive observer of the finished product.
In contrast, in the field of video games, consumer interaction with the product is considerable. The consumer does not merely view the product; he or she plays it, responding to the images and sounds produced by the game and providing input to the game. The game in turn responds to the consumer's input, altering its sequence of images and sounds accordingly. The interaction and responsiveness found in video games provides a continual and interesting challenge to the consumer, as new variations of the basic elements of the game are always possible.